One Author’s Travel and Writing Blog

Let’s take a look at two cities: Tehran, Iran, and Los Angeles, California, USA. In Tehran, the people are in the streets, protesting and risking their lives, after an election of the most dubious outcome. In Los Angeles, people are in the streets, burning cars, looting stores, and brawling, over the victory of their local basketball team. Wow, talk about a contrast!

Imagine that on their quest against tyranny, the Iranian people happen to catch the news from LA. They see thugs in the street destroying property and defying the police over the outcome of a game played with a ball. Incredible, isn’t it? the Iranians would be asking themselves. Of course, people in LA and the United States in general, take elections for granted. In Iran, this has proven not to be the case. In fact, in America you have the right to destroy public and private property without fear of having the responsibility to compensate for it because you were having a good time after your team won some make-believe title. Wonderful country, eh? Probably not a good idea to try this in Iran, especially where the Mullahs dwell.

In my perusal of some media outlets here in the United States, I have not found the above mentioned comparison. I have found a good amount of slobbering on the part of a media devoted to the current US administration and congress. Mostly they have embraced the slow by slow approach of a presidency which is gradually showing its lack of clarity and adaptability. In the mean time, people die in Tehran while the editors yawn and frown for fear of a bolder approach which might be to expose the silliness of LA compared to the gravitas of Tehran. However, to do this might pluck another thread from the seam that binds them to their king and his court, that is the newly installed US administration, which has made clear it will deal with tyrants, nuclear provocateurs, and fascist re-treads, all in the name of, “Can’t we all just get along.” Funny, I think that phrase came from LA, too.

So it goes in the world today, which can be fun if you’re in LA and help yourself to smashing a coffee shop window, setting fire to a police car, or destroying a city bus, and the authorities will kind of sit on the sidelines until you get tired and go home. But if you’re in Tehran and the bullets are flying at you because you want the right to choose your leaders, well, that’s something different now, isn’t it? And if the former beacon of freedom, that shining city on a hill, has dimmed its lights because ideologically it is more in step with your oppressors than with your desire for liberty, well, then you can’t be blamed for thinking that a darker age may be upon you.

Nonetheless, for those of you in Iran willing to gamble with your lives, consider that your effort is not in vain. Freedom is yours for the taking and can be achieved without help from the past reliable allies.

As for the editors of the media here in the United States, too many of you are cowardly and ignorant souls bent on the destruction of the very system that provides you with the protection to practice your trade. Thus, you’re incapable of reporting how and why this truly is the best and worst of times. Talk about dim bulbs.